Rain, rain, glorious rain.
After weeks of dry weather and the scary hangover of a persistent drought from last year that dropped water levels noticeably in our rivers, it’s a welcome relief to see the sky crying with light rainfall this morning.
And there’s more in the forecast.
Today there’s a 40 per cent chance of showers, increasing to 60 per cent with periods of rain tonight.
More periods of rain are in Wednesday’s forecast and into Thursday, with showers expected on Friday.
High temperatures are expected to reach 17 C today, 14 C on Wednesday, 9 C on Thursday and 14 C on Friday, before the sunshine returns for the Victoria Day long weekend.
Unfortunately the rain this week won’t be nearly enough to reduce the extreme drought conditions in the region and there’s only one day of showers (Wednesday) anticipated in the Fort Nelson area that has been evacuated due to the Parker Lake wildfire. That fire has grown to 84 square kilometres and is spreading smoke across Canada.
In April, the province’s snowpack level was the lowest it’s ever been since 1970, just 63 per cent of normal and north central B.C. is one of the hardest hit areas.
Stream flows in the Prince George area continue to be significantly lower than normal. Lack of soil moisture and long-term precipitation deficits persist and the areas around Prince George, Quesnel and Williams Lake are considered areas of concern due to low water levels and below-normal snowpacks.
Agriculture Canada, on its Canadian Drought Monitor map, rates Prince George as an area of severe drought intensity, bordering on regions north and west of the city that are considered to be under extreme drought and exceptional drought conditions.
The cloudy skies over the city are holding the heat of the day in and Prince George gardeners worried about their plants freezing this week will be glad of that, with no below-freezing overnight lows expected for the next six days. Environment Canada predicts lows will be on 2-6 C range through Sunday.
